I have the original Tipton as well as a couple of MTM Portable Rifle Maintenance Centers with built-in slide-top supply tray that is shaped to sit on the top of their Shooter's Accessory Box to be stored or carried as a unit. The latter combination might be a good choice for limited space. Sinclair has it
on this page, item #749-010-334, but the illustrating photo is wrong. The correct illustration would be the MTM Portable Rifle Maintenance Center #574-101-000 sitting on top of their Shooter Accessory Box #574-101-000. The two nest together and there is an opening in the Maintenance Center that allows the Accessory Box handle to be reached through it to carry the pair.
The vertical rifle supports on the Maintenance Center have a couple of cleaning rod supports, though you will want to add rubber bands to these to keep the rods from jumping ship if you carry it to a range. The only other issue I've had is the rubber feet falling off the Maintenance Center. Just glue them in with some rubber cement or some silicone caulk. The Silicone GE makes for sealing and gluing Plexiglass windows to frames is the best adhesive for this I've found, if you happen to have some anyway. Very slow to set, but terrific adhesion to smooth, flexible surfaces. Degrease the parts first.
Overall the above item is a good way to keep a number items stored together. The only limitation is that if you want to be sure no dripping bore cleaner gets through from the receiver area when the Maintenance Center is sitting by itself on a table, you will want a rag over that handle opening.
If I were buying today, rather than get a second Maintenance center, I would probably get
MTM'sTactical Range Box (click on second thumbnail under the photo to see it in use) because I have an AR-15. The mag well fork on this box is designed to support that gun without using a
cleaning link (second thumnail below main image) to keep the lower from pivoting closed on your finger, as you require with the standard Tipton or the MTM's.
The sliding jaw of the Tipton's Best vice may also eliminate the cleaning link requirement. It would also be the better choice if you have a short barrel rifle. My Tipton is more rigid than the MTM units and stays put on the table better, but it's bigger to store an doesn't have nearly as much total storage space.
Whatever system you get, I'll make a couple of recommendations on the assumption you have to use a common area of the house and have a significant other who objects to strange odors coming from your cleaning work and doesn't like the odd patch falling on an eating surface.
Get a patch catcher for the muzzles of your guns. I use
this one because it goes on and off faster than Tipton's gadget and I don't drink soda pop to have as catch bottles for the Tipton, but if you do, that might be convenient for disposal purposes.
Use Boretech Eliminator as your bore cleaner. It's about the only bore cleaner I've used that is close to being odorless and, IMHO, is the best general purpose (both carbon and copper) gun cleaner made. You can read
this review. A stronger carbon cleaner is needed on some occasions, and that review covers Slip 2000's carbon cleaner, too. Since it was written (2006), Boretech has also come out with a carbon-only cleaner that works very well, too. So does KG-1. Gunzilla is also good on difficult carbon if you let it sit a day or two, but none are as low in odor as the Boretech products.
If you use Eliminator, you will want plastic jags, or Boretech Proof Positive jags, or nickel-plated jags. Eliminator attacks copper so fast that a brass jag turns a patch blue in the time it takes to push it through your bore, so a brass jag will make it look like there's still copper in the bore when there isn't. That may seem like extra effort, but I find avoiding spousal olfactory sensitivity a worthwhile good peace making effort. Mine can detect Hoppe's No.9 or ammonia creeping up from the basement in about the time it takes to open the bottle and wet the patch, but Eliminator never raises any objections.
If you take your cleaning gear to the range, wet the bore with Eliminator before you leave and while the gun is still a little warm. I use a pump spray for this, then insert a chamber plug and neoprene stopper in the muzzle to protect the bedding and the gun case. By the time I get home the bore is basically clean. It just needs one or two wet patches and a dry patch to get the loosened crud washed out.
